Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/26/2014
Posted in: 3DS, Nintendo, Retro Consoles. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment
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Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Indies Zero

Release Date: 7/3/2012


Available Exclusively On

  • 3ds

Final Fantasy has had some strange offshoots like Chocobo Racing, Kingdom Hearts, and the TBS Tactics. A rhythm game is probably the only genre Final Fantasy hasn’t touched on, and it’s one that the game belongs in. Final Fantasy is full of some of the best video game music ever created. While the later titles aren’t exactly up to par, there are plenty of songs here that fans will love across all 13 core titles.

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The basic gameplay is broken up into three stages that are randomized. BMS is the Battle Music Stage. Usually, one song from each game is picked that was used in a battle, usually a major boss fight. Your four characters stand in front of bars similar to a horizontal guitar hero. The entire game consists of only three tap types. Hold, tap, and slide. The speed and combination of these three can make things really difficult on the Ultra mode, but the standard model is just way too easy, even for beginners. EMS, or Event Music Stage, is a song picked during some sort of popular or well-known cutscene, and the said scene plays in the background to the music. It’s great seeing Rinoa and Squall waltz in Final Fantasy VIII or watching Aerith’s death scene in Final Fantasy VII. The game is mixed up a bit, where the ring you tap flies around the screen as you follow it to complete the required taps. The final stage, FMS, or Field Music Stage, has your leader character walk down a re-rendered field from each game, collecting chests, and the field music from each game accompanies it. This stage consists of one bar that you can move up and down to follow waves. There’s a third boring stage where you tap a crystal in the center of the screen as bubbles fly into it; these are for the opening and ending themes in the main mode, which are as boring as ever.

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This may sound simple, but the other half is leveling up your cute chibi FF characters and equipping items and weapons to last through the harder difficulties. Characters with higher HP won’t die as easily (meaning you can mess up more), and this includes their armor (they won’t take as much damage when you do mess up). Characters with higher luck in the infield stages will find more items. This is a unique twist on the rhythm genre and helps push it forward in a way that’s never really been done. Thanks to the many extras, such as fully rendered trading cards and DLC, there’s a lot to be had in this package. If you like the lesser-known songs in these games, the Dark Notes mode will help you here. You can acquire new songs via StreetPass or battle friends in multiplayer for the highest score. These are all set to the hardest difficulty, so practice is needed.

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With such a content-heavy rhythm game, it begs the question as to who this title is for. Rhythm game fans will appreciate the mechanics and use of the touchscreen, but may not care for the orchestra and chiptune heavy music. Final Fantasy nuts may love this game but not really like the fast-paced rhythm action. It’s something that can appeal to anyone who even hates RPGs, but the Final Fantasy-only music may turn Rock Band and Guitar Hero fans away. Despite who this game is made for, whoever picks it up will enjoy a simple yet rich game full of detail, content, and attention to detail that hasn’t been seen since the earlier days of Final Fantasy.

BloodRayne – 5 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/19/2014
Posted in: Comics, Other. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

BloodRayne hasn’t received the attention or props it deserves. The video games were mediocre, but they contained great characters and a memorable story. Rayne is one of the most recognized and sexiest video game characters ever created. Why has there been no BloodRayne 3? Majesco has been having financial problems for as long as anyone can remember. A PSP game was canceled, and a 3DS game was as well. The last game, BloodRayne: Betrayal, was a 2D platformer but received low sales. To satisfy everyone’s bloodlust, Rayne Digital Webbing released 26 issues of BloodRayne, which ran for a good 3 years and ended in 2009. The series has a fantastic story and really shows Rayne’s weaknesses and strengths. However, the series falls flat in the art department.

With mostly one-shots, BloodRayne does surprisingly well for itself. Rayne is trying to uncover the truth behind the Brimstone Society, an ancient secret cult that set out to kill all vampires and mythical creatures that endangered mankind. There is deception, deceit, betrayal, and mistrust running through the whole series. Just when you think things are going one way, they greatly shift to another, and it keeps you reading and tearing through issues.

The three mini-series are great as well. Plague of Dreams is all about Rayne’s half-brother, who’s threatening the world. Red Blood Run is set in China, where a secret cult is harvesting young women and turning them into vampires. This is where the story makes the biggest twist and the climax starts. The final mini-series, Tokyo Rogue, has an interesting encore/sub-plot of the years after the events of the original Brimstone Society drama. It doesn’t directly tie into it, but there are elements that point to it. The writing is very good, despite Rayne’s battle taunts being a bit cheesy. I loved the characters and got attached to many of them.

The art was inconsistent throughout the entire series. Several issues looked downright ugly, including disproportionate anatomy, Rayne looking like a man in some issues, and her body shape constantly changing. Some issues looked brighter and more vivid, while others lacked any detail at all. This is a crying shame because Rayne is a gorgeous woman and deserves the best attention when drawing her. I liked the various outfits she was in, but the art just really threw the series off.

Other than the art issue, BloodRayne is a great series for fans and non-fans alike. If you have never played BloodRayne, I suggest you try it after reading these comics. I know I want to dive back in and sink my teeth into the first game.

To the Moon

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/19/2014
Posted in: Android, iOS, Mac, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Switch. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Freebird Games

Developer: Freebird Game

Release Date: 11/1/2011


Also Available On

To the Moon is a 2D, 16-bit adventure game that follows two scientists who are fulfilling a dying man’s last wish. They use a strange computer to go into his memories to find the link that will allow him to go to the moon. To the Moon has a heartwarming story with a beautiful, sweeping musical score, but lacks any type of real gameplay.

The game is broken up into three acts, and during the first two, you are walking around John’s memories and have to find five memory links to unlock the shield surrounding time-jumping mementos. As you go further into John’s past, you find out why he doesn’t know why he wants to go to the moon. There is some memory block, and you have to find out what it is and remove it. Finding these memory links only takes a few seconds because you just click on the few items in the small area. Once you remove the shield, you play a little puzzle game, then move on to the next memory. This all just seems like an excuse to add gameplay to an otherwise visual-only adventure.

Through Act 2, you get to interact with two different mini-games, which are Whac-a-Mole and a zombie shooting section, and each is uninspired and pretty lame. The visuals are, like I said, 16-bit and pretty average. There’s nothing special here, visual-wise, and don’t even expect voice acting. The second-best thing about the story is the sweeping musical score. This score is beautiful and one of the best ones I have ever heard. I really wish that this game could have been more, but I understand most indie developers have small budgets.

Overall, To the Moon has a story that will tug at your heartstrings, as well as the music, but the gameplay feels like an excuse to extend the 1-hour story to barely four hours. If the gameplay was a little more engaging, I wouldn’t complain about it so much, but as it is, stay for the story and you will be entertained.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

Capcom Puzzle World – 7 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/18/2014
Posted in: PSP, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 2/6/2007


Available Exclusively On

  • psp

Here we have another collection of games that are almost completely worthless. Capcom was never well known for puzzle games, so why not just stick these in another larger collection? All we get are two lousy puzzle games and one good one. Buster Bros. has three variations! The game stinks as it is; why do we need three? The only worthwhile game is Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. BlockBlock is just a Breakout rip-off and is less fun.

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Honestly, even Puzzle Fighter looks like crap on the PSP. These games were poorly ported, and with such a small selection, who would want to buy this when the back says six games? I played the entire collection in less than 30 minutes and was done with it. Buster Bros. consists of shooting arrows straight up that are supposed to pop bouncing bubbles. It’s extremely difficult and no fun at all. Puzzle Fighter is a gem/Tetris hybrid that many may be familiar with. Chibi Street Fighter characters punch each other when blocks fall. Your goal is to chain colors together and drop the breaker block to set the chain off. Your blocks, which you broke, then fill your opponent’s wall. It’s a lot of fun, and this is the only game I could go back to. However, there are more fun variations of this game (Puzzle Kombat from Mortal Kombat: Deception/MK3 for DS).

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There aren’t even any great extras like in other Capcom collections. The game is just dull and boring, and even if you bring a friend along ad hoc, you’re just going to waste their time as well. If Capcom were to have included some newer puzzle games from their catalog or just added these to other collections, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. As it stands, there’s not much to really say about these three small games. It’s not worth the money or your time, even as a rental. Just stay away from this and enjoy your memories of them instead.

DJ Max Technika Tune

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/17/2014
Posted in: PlayStation Vita, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment
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Publisher: Pentavision, Neowiz

Developer: Pentavision, Neowiz

Release Date: 12/4/2012


Available Exclusively On

  • psvita

DJ Max was the best rhythm franchise on PSP and helped jump-start that genre on Vita. Technika is a reboot in a way, but it still feels familiar. The game uses the touchscreen and rear pad exclusively, ditching the button interface. This may take a while to get used to for DJ Max PSP vets like myself, but after a while, you will see the difference in challenge and pace when playing.

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One thing I did notice right off the game is the continued lack of multiplayer and modes. There is star mixing (3 songs using the touch screen), pop mixing (4 songs using front and rear), club mixing (a choice of genres), and freestyle. There’s the usual album that shows your wallpapers and unlocked videos, but that’s it. Why Pentavision insists on having no multiplayer is a mystery, but I’d like to have it in future installments. Thankfully, the game is packed full of songs featuring both licensed and original music, from J. and K. pop to rock. Kara makes a huge appearance in the game since they are one of the biggest female K-pop groups in Korea. They have five songs on here, and they are fantastic. I actually listen to them outside of the game now.

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The songs still feature various DJs and mixing masters from previous games, like ND Lee and NieN, and vocals by So Fly and various other Korean singers and rappers. Getting into the gameplay, videos are now played full-screen in the background and look gorgeous on the Vita’s screen. Colorful dots are displayed, and you must tap them to get Max 100% with the timing of the beat, but there are long strands you have to hold down and follow the bar along with the screen. The playfield is split horizontally into two sections, and you will be going back and forth between them. Some notes require quick flicking of the touch screen as well, and it all adds to the tense fun. The rear touchpad notes look different, with purple and black borders around their notes, requiring you to tap and hold. After a few hours, you will get used to the system and slowly increase your difficulty.

As you level up, you will unlock equipment that gives you passive abilities like extra XP gain, HP, and even free breaks. There’s also an option to add a modifier to increase the speed of the notes coming in, which is sadistic, but it’s there. Even after playing for a good 10 hours, I’m still unlocking stuff and increasing my score. The songs are so great and fun to listen to that I can’t get enough of the game. If you loved previous games, you must get this; anyone who hasn’t should jump in any way. Technika Tune is the best rhythm game on Vita right now, and hopefully future installments will improve upon the franchise further.

Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded – 8 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/17/2014
Posted in: PSP, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment
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Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 10/24/2006


Available Exclusively On

  • psp

These classic compilations from publishers are hit-and-miss. They can either be amazing (Midway Arcade Treasure 2) or complete crap. Reloaded falls kind of in-between. Here we have some great Capcom games like Street Fighter II, 1943, Ghost & Goblins, and Knights of the Round. On the other hand, we have multiple versions of one game, which is completely unnecessary where other games could have been. Do we need two versions of 1943? Three versions of SF2? 3 versions of Ghost & Goblins? No, we don’t. Instead, just give us the superior versions.

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Ghost & Goblins includes the original NES version, an arcade, and then the superior Super Ghosts & Goblins for SNES. Just give us the SNES version! I don’t care about the other two. For Street Fighter II, we get the original arcade version, Champion, and Hyper Fighting. Just give me Hyper Fighting! I honestly don’t know what Capcom was thinking. If it’s not multiple versions, it’s duds. SonSon isn’t all that great, and I didn’t care much for Vulgus. There are better Capcom classics that could have taken their place.

Thankfully, there are other features inside the game that are nice, such as save states like in emulators, and your scores are tracked. You can also use these score “coins” in the slot machine to unlock extras such as cheats, art, and other things. Local multiplayer is a nice addition to games like Street Fighter and Knights of the Round. Infrastructure would have been much nicer, but given the poor software sales, it would have cost too much money to keep servers going.

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The games themselves are nicely emulated, with no slowdown. The screen is nicely fitted to the PSP’s widescreen without looking stretched out and grainy, so I give it credit for that. You have to take each game with a grain of salt because some of them are over 20 years old. Don’t come in expecting innovative new ideas and amazing graphics. These games are fun to play as a weekend rental, but only people who grew up with them will truly appreciate them. I just wish there weren’t so many duplicates and so many duds.

Black Rock Shooter: The Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/17/2014
Posted in: PSP, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: NIS America

Developer: Image Epoch

Release Date: 4/23/2013


Available Exclusively On

  • psp

I don’t know much about Black Rock Shooter, but I know it’s highly popular in Japan and has made its way to the US. The premise of the story is interesting. Mankind was destroyed by machines, and only a few humans remain alive. Black Rock Shooter is mankind’s heroine, and you play that role in the game. There’s some shooting involved and minor exploration, but the game feels like a cheap cash tie-in for the franchise.

Exploration consists of wandering through extremely linear and ugly environments to find enemies to kill. When you get into battle, you are stationary and must use the analog nub to control your gun and press square to fire. As you continue to fire, your gun will overheat and do less damage. This is an interesting idea, so don’t spam shots. Enemies advance on you, and you need to block or use defensive special powers to reduce damage taken. There are many special powers to unlock, but they have long-cooled-down timers. This seems fun at first, but after the first few levels, it gets tiring. It’s really easy because you are given plenty of health packs, and it’s not hard to judge the enemy. Each battle plays exactly like this, even bosses.

When you’re not shooting, you’re just running around, and that’s the entire game. There’s no handing out stat points, and the story drags on and is pretty incoherent. I didn’t get attached to any of the characters, and I couldn’t even finish the game. The game has good Japanese voice acting, but the game is downright ugly, even for PSP standards. The textures are so low-resolution and muddy that you can hardly make out what they are. The models are ugly, with hardly any detail, and everything looks out of proportion. BRS is nearly taller than 5-story buildings, and all the environments look the same. There’s honestly not much fun here, even for hardcore BRS fans. They may trudge through it for the story, but that’s about it.

BRS could have been so much more given the license. Instead, we get an ugly, dull-shooter RPG hybrid that isn’t interesting at all to play. Why the game got a US release is beyond me, seeing as a lot of people have never heard of BRS and the game is so hard to find. There is a collector’s edition released in Japan, and it has done much better over there.

Beyond: Two Souls

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/17/2014
Posted in: PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Retro Consoles, Sony, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Quantic Dream

Release Date: 10/8/2013


Also Available On

Quantic Dream is one of those developers who tries something new and tries to innovate in the game industry. They started out with Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit for Europeans), and it was an interesting concept that was executed surprisingly well. Heavy Rain was the same way, with a fantastic story and multiple choices that could change the ending. Using just various button presses to play the game could seem boring, but when the action picked up, it got pretty intense. You had a split second to press the various buttons to make the characters flee for their lives or fight off enemies. Beyond feels like a spiritual successor to both of those games but is less interactive than the other two.

You play as a girl named Jodie (Ellen Page), who has an entity named Aiden attached to her. She can control him to do anything from knocking down a box to possessing someone and making them commit suicide. You bounce back and forth from her childhood to her adulthood, where she’s being taken care of by a scientist named Nathan Dawkins (Willem Dafoe) and also when she’s in the CIA. This may seem confusing because the storyline is told in a random pattern, but it makes perfect sense. The story is well-balanced and easy to follow, and there are some great plot twists and changes.

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Like in Heavy Rain, you can wander around and do things, but there’s less optional interaction in Heavy Rain. You will rarely find stuff to interact with just for the heck of it. When things start getting intense, you will need to keep Jodie alive by following her movements in slow motion. The action will slow down a bit, and you need to press the right analog stick in the direction that Jodie is moving. Sometimes this is hard to gauge due to an odd camera angle or her movements being too subtle. I never died in the game, though, but slower-reacting people may find the action sequences frustrating. That’s kind of where things become a problem. You will engage in a tense action sequence only to hit a chapter where you’re making dinner for Jodie’s date. There are some really dull and slow moments in Beyond, and there are too many odd inconsistencies.

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Like in the mentioned scene above, I had to pick up clothes, cook dinner, and get Jodie ready for her date. This was slow and dull, and the inconsistencies drove me nuts. After putting dinner on the stove, I wandered around (the characters controlled it like awkward tanks). I took a shower, watched her drink some old beer, helped her pick out a dress, and the whole time (about 30 in-game minutes), the food sat in the pan, not being touched, and it never burned. One scene towards the end has Jodie and her three CIA agents in North Korea tracking down a condenser, which is a rift to the infraworld (the other side). They leave a house and do a lookout on a base, but one guy is missing for about 3 scenes, and it’s never explained where he went. Then he just appears out of nowhere.

Controlling Aiden is also another problem because the levels are hard to navigate. The rooms and hallways all look the same, and you will get lost often. Aiden controls it like a no-clip camera with a fisheye lens. He’s just a floating spirit attached to Jodie. Your goal is to look for blue dots to attach to and use both sticks to slam stuff around, possess bodies, knock stuff over, and distract people. He’s kind of the puzzle side of the game. When I first played Aiden, he was nearly impossible to control, and I almost threw up for how frustrated I got. Later on, I learned to get used to it, but this could have been done better.

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Of course, the game is all about the story and choices, and there are quite a few, but in the end, the choices are pretty much predefined. Depending on who you keep alive or befriend, you get to choose who you stay with or a couple of other ending selections. They seem cookie-cutter, and your little, tiny choices didn’t really make a difference. Again, more inconsistencies. Besides the choices, the CIA portions were the worst and felt unnecessary for the game. It was just an excuse to add more action and close down these three condensers throughout the world. The more memorable moments were when Jodie was a kid and when Jodie had more one-on-one experiences with people as an adult, like when she was homeless.

The game does look damn good, though; in fact, it is one of the best-looking games of this generation; it almost looks next-gen. The voice acting and motion capture are unlike anything we’ve seen in this generation. Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe do an amazing job in their roles, but I can’t help but notice flaws due to the hardware limitations. Some facial expressions look overdone, and some textures look muddy and downright ugly. There is skipping when the game is loading, but it’s all minor stuff.

Overall, Beyond: Two Souls is 15 hours long, but it is filled with boring scenes that are there just to extend playtime. The CIA missions are boring and out of place, and there are many annoying inconsistencies with events in some scenes. The game looks fantastic, and the acting is superb, so this is a very entertaining weekend rental and nothing more. Don’t come here looking for action, because timed button presses are all you’re going to get.

Reviewed On

Super Mario 3D World

Posted by thatgamereviewer on 01/14/2014
Posted in: Nintendo, Nintendo Consoles, Retro Consoles, Switch, Wii U. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo

Release Date: 11/22/13


Available On

I have a confession. I’ve never beaten a 3D Mario game. And I’ve never gotten a game on the first day that it came out. Super Mario 3D World changed both of those things, and I’m glad that it was the game to do that. You see, Mario 3D World is not the best 3D Mario game. That trophy belongs to Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario 64, which both have much more “open” gameplay. Instead, Super Mario 3D World has the best level design ever seen in a Mario game. Every single secret location is ingenious. Enemy locations and patterns were created with care, and platforms are always placed in locations so that they aren’t too easy to jump to, yet every missed jump is a user error.

I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much at a game. Even when I was mad, I was smiling. Smiling during local multiplayer is commonplace for most video games, but I don’t think I ever smile when playing by myself. Super Mario 3D World made me smile even during single-player. The game is just so much fun that I could hardly get myself to put it down while playing. The story is… well, no one plays a Mario game for the story. The first new addition to the franchise is that there are 4 characters (spoilers, I guess if you can call it that: there is a 5th character you unlock as well later in the game) to choose from, and player one is not locked to Mario, unlike the New Super Mario Bros. games. Mario is all-around good; Luigi can jump extra high but has clumsier movements; Peach (yes, you get to play as Peach this time around) can float (giving her a longer jump time) but is much slower than the rest; and Toad is very fast yet a little more difficult to control.

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Luigi was my favorite character of the four, as his higher jump was very useful in some situations. I know most people have a preference for Mario, however. This game is fantastic in multiplayer and in single-player. While the Mario platformers have often been criticized for having too chaotic a multiplayer, 3D World is the perfect balance between chaos and teamwork. Also, unlike the previous Mario games, 3D World is not ridiculously easy to play with multiplayer. While most secrets are a breeze when with friends, death will also be more commonplace, which balances the two out.

I do have a minor gripe with multiplayer, though. I do not understand why the person on the gamepad cannot stray away from the rest of the group, especially when only two people are playing. It’s annoying that the game does not take advantage of the Wii U’s asymmetrical multiplayer features. Also, the gamepad is almost completely useless in the game. It can be used to highlight invisible secrets, temporarily stop enemies, and also as a camera, but it’s much easier and more intuitive to use the right analog stick as a camera. The only levels that take advantage of it properly are those where you must tap on platforms to make them pop out. Those levels are few and far between, but they make the best use of the gamepad throughout the whole game.

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Of course, there is also off-TV mode; however, the graphics are much crisper and clearer on a television screen, where the game is meant to be played. Speaking of the graphics, this game looks absolutely breathtaking. The lighting effects are extremely well done, and the rain levels, in particular, look stunning. 720p or not, this game is beautiful, and it runs for the most part at sixty frames per second (only the keenest observers will notice the occasional frame rate drop). The soundtrack is also excellent and makes use of one of my favorite Wii U features: playing the part of the beat of the gamepad and the other part off the TV.

The gameplay itself, burnt down to its core, is extremely similar to Super Mario 3D Land; however, the level design is so fresh that I never felt like I was playing the same game again. I’m probably not the best person to comment on that, though, considering I only played through the first two worlds of 3D Land. Also, those only interested in the next Mario Galaxy game might want to stray away, as Super Mario 3D World shares more in common with the 2D platformers than its 3D counterparts.

The controls are pitch-perfect, as to be expected from a Nintendo game. Every movement feels right, and all errors were my fault and not the game’s fault. I didn’t really make too many errors though, as the main worlds are unfortunately very easy, and that is coming from someone who usually sucks at video games (you don’t even want to know how terrible I am at some games). It’s also not too long, but that’s okay because there is tons of extra content once you’ve beaten the game.

Completely new to the game are the Captain Toad levels. They’re kind of like Fez if Fez were an actual 3D game. There are only a few, but this prevents them from getting stale, and they provide quite a challenge sometimes. Also, something I was surprised this game had was depth perception issues. The 3D effect really helped the original game, and it shows in the sequel, as I often had to pay attention to shadows to tell where my jumps were going to land. It’s a shame Nintendo didn’t add stereoscopic 3D support.

The two major powerups added are the catsuit and double cherry. The catsuit allows you to climb up to secrets and attack enemies, and it is one of the most creative powerups in a Mario game ever. The double cherry creates clones of yourself, which in turn can cause hectic fun during multiplayer. It’s too bad that the double cherry is level-specific and very uncommon to come across. There are also a bunch of other temporary powerups, like a goomba disguise and a coin-shooting block, which are fun to use.

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Super Mario 3D World is one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. It’s polished and fun, and those waiting for a reason to buy a Wii U have no better reason to jump on. I’ve been disappointed with the Wii U the whole entire year until now, and Nintendo has proven that in the end, the one thing they have over their major competitors are first-party titles that are fun no matter who they are played with and will withstand the test of time.

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Muramasa Rebirth

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/10/2014
Posted in: PlayStation Vita, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Marvelous AQL, Aksys Games

Developer: Vanillaware

Release Date: 6/25/2013


Available Exclusively On

  • psvita

Muramasa was a highly acclaimed Wii game from Vanillaware of Odin Sphere (and now Dragon’s Crown fame). It had high speed and fancy fight moves, but it was extremely challenging and had memorable characters. It now makes its transfer to Vita in HD with bright, gorgeous graphics and two whole storylines to play through.

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I played through Momohime’s (Peach Princess) storyline, so my experience is based on that. Momohime is possessed by a spirit who wants the infamous Demon Blade and will cut anyone down in her path. She goes from hell to heaven and even cuts down gods. The game is 90% combat, and man, is it tough and fun. You can equip three different blades at once and switch between them with a triangle. When your blades are flashing, you can press triangle to unleash a powerful full-screen attack. Each blade has its own special power, which is key to winning hard fights. If you use the blade too much or block it too often, the blade will break, and you will need to switch to a different one and wait for it to recharge. You can use whetstones to hasten this, but as you level up and forge new weapons, they will break less often.

This is basically all there is to combat: you press the attack or use special powers combined with directions. It may seem simple, but the game is so tough that you can’t just button-mash. You have to use strategy, mixing up dodges, blocking, and special and regular attacks. The game constantly kept me on my toes, and I had to learn every boss’s moves and sometimes restart dozens of times. When I finally beat a boss, it was so satisfying. In between, there’s some platforming and item hunting, but you travel from locale to locale and get stopped by fights between each screen. I had a lot of fun navigating the gorgeous environments and even stopping to shop for health items and various other things to help out in fights.

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One other small feature is being able to cook with items you find. These are used to heal you, which you will use often. Always make sure you are stocked on health items, or you will never make it through the game. Outside of all the fighting, the dialogue is interesting, and the Japanese voice acting is fantastic. The characters are memorable (I have already purchased a $145 figure of Kongiku), and you will stay hooked. With two stories to play through, there’s a lot of content here.

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Vanillaware is known for its unique high fantasy mixed with the ancient Japanese art style, and it really shines here. The game pops to life on the Vita’s OLED screen and just makes your eyes water; it looks so crisp. The controls are perfect and extremely responsive; honestly, even though this is a port, it’s one of the best Vita games available right now. That makes two Vanillaware games on one system. If you love 2D games or action hack and slash games, this is a must-buy.